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Open Questions in Museum Accounting

Open Questions in Museum Accounting SAN FRANCISCO Museums have proliferated in the last decade. The 5,500 or so museums across the country have a combined annual attendance nearing the half-billion mark. In 1978, the combined operating budgets of museums in the United States amounted to nearly one billion dollars.’ The era of museums as “big business” has arrived. Not surprisingly, public demand for understandable financial information about museums has also increased. Finaicial reports are not only vital to management and boards of directors, but they also assure donors that the organization has properly accounted for their contributions. Nonprofit organizations have developed their own methods of financial reporting to meet these special demands. However, to those unfamiliar with the intricacies of fund accounting, nonprofit financial reports appear complex and confusing. The accounting profession has responded to this problem by recommending that nonprofit organizations adopt the traditional financial-reporting procedures of business. However, the nature and development of accounting in nonprofit organizations is quite different from that of businesses. Nonprofit objectives differ from those of profit-making enterprises to such a degree that similar formats would be misleading and would actually misdirect those evaluating the financial management of nonprofit organizations. The current efforts at standardization of nonprofit http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Curator the Museum Journal Wiley

Open Questions in Museum Accounting

Curator the Museum Journal , Volume 25 (1) – Mar 1, 1982

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
1982 California Academy of Sciences
ISSN
0011-3069
eISSN
2151-6952
DOI
10.1111/j.2151-6952.1982.tb00580.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

SAN FRANCISCO Museums have proliferated in the last decade. The 5,500 or so museums across the country have a combined annual attendance nearing the half-billion mark. In 1978, the combined operating budgets of museums in the United States amounted to nearly one billion dollars.’ The era of museums as “big business” has arrived. Not surprisingly, public demand for understandable financial information about museums has also increased. Finaicial reports are not only vital to management and boards of directors, but they also assure donors that the organization has properly accounted for their contributions. Nonprofit organizations have developed their own methods of financial reporting to meet these special demands. However, to those unfamiliar with the intricacies of fund accounting, nonprofit financial reports appear complex and confusing. The accounting profession has responded to this problem by recommending that nonprofit organizations adopt the traditional financial-reporting procedures of business. However, the nature and development of accounting in nonprofit organizations is quite different from that of businesses. Nonprofit objectives differ from those of profit-making enterprises to such a degree that similar formats would be misleading and would actually misdirect those evaluating the financial management of nonprofit organizations. The current efforts at standardization of nonprofit

Journal

Curator the Museum JournalWiley

Published: Mar 1, 1982

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